kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Brian Sidebotham <brian.sidebotham@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hey guys,

I only just got round to using 3D with KiCad. Mainly because I
normally use Solid Edge for 3D solid modelling, and I could never be
bothered to use FreeCAD at home because, well, it's not Solid Edge!
Anyway, I just compiled FreeCAD on my Mint box and I have to say it
works really well these days - so I should put it to use.

I designed my part in metric in FreeCAD, exported to WRL and used that
in KiCad (All works well there, so thanks to everyone who's been
working on that part of KiCad, it now "just works"). The problem I had
was one of scale. To get the scale right, the scale needs to be input
as 0.393701 (1/2.54).

The units in the WRL are in mm. Can I put some buttons in to set the
scale? Buttons like "mm, cm, inches, and feet" which would be useful
to me. Is this something can happen pre-stable release?

It seems like a usability thing to me. Not many people are going to
guess at 1/2.54.

There's very minimal impact on the manuals. Perhaps more people are
using FreeCAD compared to Wings3D these days anyway?

All thoughts or other ideas are welcome! :D

Best Regards,

Brian.